


more in common after all

by cjmasim



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, F/F, Fluff, Gritty, Magizoologist Luna Lovegood, Pennsylvania
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:41:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26401315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cjmasim/pseuds/cjmasim
Summary: "What is this creature we'll be tracking down, then?""He's a rare sort of creature, believed to be solitary rather than part of any sort of flock or pack. He's been spotted in rural Pennsylvania, and is said to be a large, vaguely humanoid, bright orange fluffy creature. The locals have taken to calling him Gritty, as he clearly possesses the necessary smarts to outwit anyone who tries to find him.""Sounds lovely," Ginny had said, not sure of what else to say.And that is how she finds herself in rural Pennsylvania, sitting in the passenger seat of a bright red rental car while Luna drives around, narrowly avoiding driving off the road or into another car.
Relationships: Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley
Comments: 9
Kudos: 27
Collections: HP Crack!Fic Fest





	more in common after all

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the HP Crack!Fic Fest based on the prompt "Luna invites Ginny on an excursion in search of a strange creature for her next Quibbler article." This was a lot of fun to write!
> 
> The title comes from Rodent by The Menzingers. Gritty is, of course, the iconic mascot who has transcended hockey, but in case you aren't familiar with him, [this](https://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2020_04/3197876/200122-gritty-mn-1540_dd35d4cb430266e34e1981cb65b27f3c.fit-760w.jpg) is what he looks like, and his backstory is that he was supposedly found living underneath the Philadelphia Flyers' arena and turned into a mascot. 
> 
> Thank you to G for betaing!
> 
> Now that reveals are up, the cover art and playlist for this fic can be found [here](https://cjmasim.tumblr.com/post/632074732456525824/lesbianlilyevans-fic-31-more-in-common-after).

In the three years they've been together, Ginny has never quite understood what Luna does for work. She knows that her girlfriend is a magizoologist, and she knows that the job involves seeking out understudied creatures in the wild to observe them and learn as much as she can. She also knows that while half of Luna's job is in the field, the other half is mostly spent researching and writing papers, along with the occasional magizoologist conference or substituting in for Care of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts. It's a busy job with many various requirements, and as a professional Quidditch player, Ginny has never had the time to learn more about it.

The Harpies didn't have a very good season, though, and this offseason will be longer than most. On top of that, it's the first time that the bulk of Ginny's offseason has aligned perfectly with Luna's fieldwork rather than her research or writing. In other words, it's the perfect opportunity for Luna to convince Ginny to accompany her into the field. 

"It'll be so much fun!" Luna had said. "And this creature is especially difficult to track, but it's said that the power of love can help calm him down. There have only been two reported sightings in all of history, but I know for sure that he's out there."

"How is that?" Ginny had asked.

"Magic, of course," Luna had replied as if that actually answered Ginny's question. 

"What is this creature we'll be tracking down, then?"

"He's a rare sort of creature, believed to be solitary rather than part of any sort of flock or pack. He's been spotted in rural Pennsylvania and is said to be a large, vaguely humanoid, bright orange fluffy creature. The locals have taken to calling him Gritty, as he clearly possesses the necessary smarts to outwit anyone who tries to find him."

"Sounds lovely," Ginny had said, not sure of what else to say.

And that is how she finds herself in rural Pennsylvania, sitting in the passenger seat of a bright red rental car while Luna drives around, narrowly avoiding driving off the road or into another car. 

"It's a pity they didn't have an orange car to rent, don't you think?" Luna asks.

"Mm, I suppose," Ginny replies. "Do you think it would make Gritty feel welcomed, or would it just make it obvious that we're after him?"

Luna takes a moment to reply, considering the question. "He is known to run from those seeking him, but few have ever tried that with good intentions. You might be right, though; it's best not to risk it," she says. "Oh, and by the way, Gin - try not to say his name. I don't know if he has some sort of taboo on it."

"Noted," she nods. Can fluffy orange humanoid creatures use magic as sophisticated as taboos? 

Ginny's starting to get tired and hungry, so she'll have to save looking through Luna's notes for later. She's not sure it's a good idea to do that in a moving vehicle, anyway - too much risk of the papers getting scattered.

The rain blanketing the countryside is doing nothing to help her wake up. Luna is humming along to some classic rock instrumental on the radio, and it's soothing. Ginny's starting to drift off when the car jerks to the right, causing her to hit her head on the window.

"Sorry!" Luna shouts, hitting the gas pedal and speeding up far faster than is probably legal in the Muggle world. Come to think of it, Ginny is sure she's supposed to have some sort of permit to drive this car. She'd had to Confund the employee at the rental car dealership to get ahold of the car. Maybe that wasn't the brightest idea, after all. "I saw him!"

Ginny looks around, but all she can really see is the blur of trees and occasional passing cars. There isn't anything orange. 

"He went this way, I'm sure of it," Luna continues. "I can sense him. A sort of fear of being discovered."

"Just be careful," Ginny advises. "If you let him get away, he might slow down and make it easier to find him again."

"Huh," Luna says, considering. She reaches a hand out toward Ginny to stop her from lurching forward as she slams on the brakes.

"What was that for?"

"You made a great point," Luna says, looking away from the road and at Ginny. "I'm going to pull over and wait for the energy to steady."

"Okay," Ginny says, accepting her explanation with ease. "Say, does that mean we can take a break?"

"Come to think of it, I was going to say you can take a break, but perhaps if I do as well…"

"Then he'll know you aren't looking out for him," Ginny finishes. 

Luna grins. "Exactly. Now, why don't you go ahead and start distracting me?"

"Anything to help find him," Ginny says, undoing her seatbelt and leaning over the center console to meet Luna's lips. 

-

They stay like that for a while, long enough that the rain stops. 

"Has his energy calmed down?" Ginny asks, pulling apart enough to allow them both to catch their breath and speak. 

Luna closes her eyes, and while Ginny still doesn't understand how this works, she knows that Luna is somehow reaching into the universe to feel the "vibes". It's an obscure branch of magic, and once again, Ginny finds herself thinking of just how impressive magizoology really is.

"Yes," Luna says after a long moment. "He seems to have calmed."

Ginny nods. "That's good, then."

Luna hums in agreement, but doesn't start the car up again. 

"Are we going after him?"

"Of course," Luna says. "But I wonder if we should get some food first. I'm starting to get a little hungry, and I'm sure you are as well."

Ginny feels excitement bubble under her skin at the prospect of food, like she's just finished a seven-hour Quidditch match and is headed to a buffet with her teammates. "Let's do it."

Luna starts the car up again and drives them to the nearest small town. She keeps a reasonable pace this time, and it isn't too long before they're pulling into the parking lot of an establishment with a sign reading "Sheetz".

"Is this a restaurant?" Ginny asks. She eyes the gas pumps with skepticism. She never took Muggle Studies, but she'd always been under the impression that Muggles kept petrol refills and food separate. Maybe Americans do things differently.

"Sort of," Luna says, unbuckling her seatbelt and moving to get out of the car. Ginny follows her. "It was highly recommended by all of my peers who have been to Pennsylvania before. Apparently, you place an order using some sort of digital touchpad - the highest of Muggle technology! And the mac and cheese bites are to die for, so I've heard."

Ginny's not sure why anyone would die for a bite of mac and cheese - surely it would be best to at least get a full serving - but she trusts Luna, and Luna trusts her magizoologist peers. Their food recommendations have always been top tier in the past, she says. 

"So this is the magic touchpad," Luna murmurs, stopping in front of a flat screen that vaguely reminds Ginny of her father's newest television. 

"How do Muggles get it to work without a wand?" Ginny asks. "Dad has a separate controller, but I don't see one of those lying around."

She looks over at the other screens, seeing the Muggles tapping the screens with their fingers. Is that all they had to do, or is there some way to activate it?

Ginny looks back to see that Luna is tapping the screen now, and a picture of small pieces of fried dough with the words "mac and cheese bites" in large font above it stare back at her.

"Just like that," Luna confirms.

"Fascinating," Ginny murmurs. 

"What would you like to order?" Luna asks. "Do you want to try to select it?"

Ginny shrugs and steps forward, touching the button on the screen that says "sandwiches", but she pauses once she gets to the customization screen. "This is complicated."

"A lot of tapping involved," Luna remarks. They manage to get the order figured out, and the machine prints out a short piece of paper listing their order details. 

"Is that all?" Ginny asks. "Do we not have to pay?"

"Perhaps we pay after we get the food," Luna says, walking over toward the sign reading "pick-ups". 

They stand there waiting for several minutes before an employee asks them for their names. They both go to speak at once, but Ginny lets Luna take the lead since she's the one who brought them here.

"Did you pay for the order yet?" The employee asks, and Luna looks back at Ginny.

"Er… no, how do we do that?" Luna asks. 

"Go to the counter," the employee says, pointing to a counter with a small line. "Give them your receipt and they'll take care of it, then we'll have your food ready."

"Oh, thank you!" Luna says, starting to skip over to the counter. Ginny walks behind her, feeling a little lost as she tends to in the Muggle world. 

Luna seems surprisingly at ease with the Muggle currency, probably due to her having spent several years doing fieldwork. Ginny lets her handle everything, and soon enough, they're back at the pick-up counter where the employee from before hands them a bag of food. They see some tables outside the store, so they decide to eat there even though no one else is around.

Ginny's chicken sandwich is quite good. Luna moans as she has her first mac and cheese bite, so Ginny's pretty sure she's having an even better time.

"Oh, Gin, you _have_ to try one!"

Ginny still isn't sure about them, especially now that she sees that they're essentially just fried mac and cheese, but Luna is terribly convincing. 

It's a different sort of taste than the British food she's used to, but it's hot, full of cheesy flavor, and surprisingly delicious.

"You were right," she admits through a mouthful of mac and cheese. 

Luna giggles at the sight. "I told you so!"

They finish their meal fairly quickly, and it's well into the afternoon now. There's still plenty of time in the day to track down the elusive Gritty, so they waste no time in getting back on the road. 

"Any idea where he's gone?" Ginny asks once they're back in the car.

Luna shakes her head. "We can't use a tracking spell, either. He'll know. But I know he was headed east, toward the city."

"Let's go east, then," Ginny says, and Luna pulls out of the parking lot. 

They drive in relative silence, save for the country station playing at a low volume - Luna insists that they should listen to American music while in the States - and Ginny occasionally pointing out interesting billboards on the side of the road. Ginny's much more awake now that she's had a proper meal and a break from sitting in a car, and she takes the opportunity to try to find Gritty's energy out in the universe. She's positive that it isn't actually working, since she's never tried it before and Luna has assured her that it takes a lot of practice to master, but it's fun to try.

They're getting closer to the city, judging by the increasing prevalence of other cars. It's getting later, too, and there are so many cars heading out of the city that Ginny wonders if there's been some sort of disaster.

"They're probably just heading home from work," Luna assures her. "I've been told that this is normal."

The traffic going into the city isn't as bad; the car is still moving steadily. Ginny's eyes drift toward yet another billboard, this one advertising McDonald's, when she notices an orange blur out of the corner of her eye. 

"He's headed that way!" She shouts, looking back to the blur that could only have been Gritty. 

Luna steps on the gas pedal, once again accelerating the car far beyond legal limits. She's weaving in and out of the traffic, narrowly avoiding hitting some cars, and Ginny wishes that they had her father's old Ford Anglia to fly over everyone. It would be a lot safer, she's sure. 

They keep speeding through the traffic even as flashing blue and red lights appear behind them. Ginny casts a disillusionment charm on the car, realizing only now that she should've done that the second Luna started speeding, and she watches in amusement as the cop slows down with the target out of sight. 

Luna catches another glimpse of orange as she races toward the city and takes the same exit that the orange blur seems to have run down. They're in a busier part of the city now, and it's especially challenging to speed over the bridge and through the tight streets. The skyscrapers tower above them, and they manage to keep up with Gritty only because of Luna's surprisingly advanced driving skills. Really, it's a miracle she doesn't drive them straight into a building with some of these sharp turns. 

Gritty runs all throughout the city, and Luna is relentless in her pursuit. 

"What if we stopped? Would he slow down like before?" Ginny asks on a relatively straight stretch of road. 

"It's no use," Luna replies without taking her eyes off of the road and the dash of orange ahead of them. "Too many people. He'd keep running."

Ginny realizes that she's right. Even if they stopped chasing Gritty, he doesn't have a disillusionment charm. Every single one of those Muggles on the street is perfectly capable of seeing him, and while he is very fast, he's not fast enough to escape their vision. The American Ministry will have a field day with all the memory charms they're going to have to perform. 

But that's not Ginny's problem. Gritty is heading south, and while she isn't familiar with Philadelphia at all, she can see water in the distance. It seems like they're approaching a dead end, and she's going to have to be ready to help Luna catch him, even though Luna says she never captures creatures. 

She doesn't even notice Gritty has stopped running until Luna slams on the brakes, throwing a hand in front of Ginny to keep her from hitting the windshield once again. 

Luna's out of the car before Ginny can even think, and as she rushes out of the car to follow her, she notices that Luna pulled onto the sidewalk. At least they don't have to worry about other cars hitting the rental.

Gritty is running toward a large building with lettering at the top reading "Wells Fargo Center". Ginny doesn't have a clue what it is, but there's a large empty parking lot outside of it that he's running right into. Luna is right behind him, and Ginny isn't far behind her. 

"Gritty!" Luna yells, still running. She has a camera in one hand, and Ginny takes another moment to marvel at just how much work goes into magizoology. "We come in peace! I only want to ask you a few questions!"

Ginny isn't sure whether Gritty understands English, but he does stop running, turning around to look right at them. Luna stops, too, and Ginny nearly crashes into her. 

"Thank you," Luna huffs. "My name is Luna. It's a pleasure to meet you. Please, Gritty, you can nod for yes or shake your head for no." She demonstrates the motions as she speaks. "I'd just like to ask you a few questions. Ginny here is going to observe."

Ginny nods, and Gritty does the same. It's a little unnerving, especially since he seems to be looking right at her. Up close, Ginny can see that he really is bright orange, similar to the color of her hair. He's covered in fur but doesn't have anything else on his body, and his eyes are wide and seem to move in all directions, almost like old Mad-Eye's prosthetic.

Luna assured her that Gritty is friendly, though, so she sees no reason to be afraid. 

"Do you have any other family members or friends?" Luna asks. 

Gritty shakes his head, and this cycle continues. Luna asks a lot of questions, and Gritty answers all of them without complaint. It's a good thing they're in an empty parking lot.

Eventually, Luna runs out of questions. 

"Thank you for letting us speak to you, Gritty," she says with a genuine smile. "I am truly honored to have met you. Do you have a home to return to?"

Gritty shakes his head.

"Oh," Luna says. "Well, would you like one? I could reach out to my colleagues and see…" Gritty is shaking his head emphatically, and Luna trails off. "Okay, I guess not, then."

Gritty steps forward, pulling both of them into a hug. It's very soft, and not nearly as tight as Ginny would have imagined had she ever imagined being hugged by Gritty. He seems to take their size into consideration; both of them are much smaller than Gritty. 

When he lets go, Gritty turns around, waves, and runs at full speed toward the arena. Ginny sees a flash of orange descending into some sort of underground opening.

"The sewer?" Luna shakes her head. "I suppose it works, if he wants to be apart from humans. We can head back now."

"That was… quite nice, actually," Ginny says as they walk back toward the car, taking Luna's hand into hers.

Luna beams. "I'm so glad you had a nice time."

-

A few years later, Luna comes home from the office several hours later with a huge smile on her face. 

"Ginny! Guess what?"

Ginny's mind jumps to a few possibilities. Maybe one of Luna's friends or coworkers is engaged, or pregnant, or just got a new pet. She's not sure any of those would justify coming home early, though.

"It's Gritty!"

"Gritty?" Ginny exclaims, laughing slightly in disbelief. She and Luna still talk about him sometimes - indeed, her paper on their encounter with him is one of her most well-known works - but she certainly hadn't expected any further updates on him.

"He has a new job! He's going to be the mascot for an ice hockey team in Philadelphia. They're called the Flyers - like you! Oh, isn't that fantastic?"

Luna's news is not at all what Ginny had anticipated, but she's happy for the strange orange creature. "That's wonderful," she says, completely sincere. "How did that happen?"

Luna laughs. "You remember that building we met him outside of? I kept the details out of my paper for the sake of his privacy, but it turns out an American Muggle-born magizoologist figured out his location based on the details I did give. His brother works for the Flyers, you see, and they had already been in search of a new mascot, so he found Gritty and managed to convince him to work for the team! It turns out that that building is actually where the Flyers play, so Gritty doesn't even have to move."

"Wow," Ginny says. She's never heard of individual sports teams having mascots - is that a normal thing for Muggle sports, or are the Flyers just innovative? She'll have to ask Hermione, not that she's particularly keen on sports. 

"Say, Luna," she says. "What do the Muggles think of that?"

"Oh, they just think Gritty is a character played by a person in a costume," Luna says, as if that's a perfectly ordinary thing to say about a rare magical creature. "This is normal in Muggle sports, you see. Usually, mascots actually are costumes, but Gritty is special."

"Huh," Ginny says, nodding her head.

She won't have to ask Hermione about Muggle sports mascots, then. Ginny is sure that that's for the best.

"We'll have to make it to a Flyers match sometime," Luna says. 

Ginny hadn't ever thought she'd attend a Muggle sports match, but perhaps she could learn something from their technique. It'll be nice to support Gritty, anyway.

"Sounds like a plan," she says, smiling back at Luna.

**Author's Note:**

> **This work is part of the ongoing HP Crack!Fic Fest 2020.**
> 
> Please feel free to leave kudos/comments for the author here, or on our communities at [LJ](https://hpcrackficfest.livejournal.com/)/[DW](https://hpcrackficfest.dreamwidth.org/)/[Tumblr](https://hpcrackficfest.tumblr.com/).


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